Spinoza and Maimonides on True Religion

Warren Zev Harvey

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Maimonides requires the multitude to observe many ceremonial commandments, while Spinoza makes no such demand. This chapter focuses on some of the main points of agreement between Maimonides and Spinoza on true religion, the religion of reason, or philosophic religion. True religion includes also piety, that is, moral conduct, which follows from the rational life. The piety of the philosopher and the non-philosopher both consist in doing good to others. Maimonides’ approach to true religion adumbrates Spinoza's. Spinoza's concept of amor Dei intellectualis echoes Maimonides’ concept of the passionate intellectual love of God. Spinoza's concept of piety is adumbrated in Maimonides. The Maimonidean thrust of Spinoza's concept of true religion is evident in his discussion of “the divine Law” or, more precisely, “the natural divine Law” and the summum bonum in TTP4. In Maimonides’ language, true religion is based on the intelligibilia and popular religion on generally accepted opinions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationA Companion to Spinoza
Publisherwiley
Pages41-46
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781119538349
ISBN (Print)9781119538646
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • divine Law
  • Maimonides’ approach
  • natural divine Law
  • Spinoza's concept
  • true religion

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